Business entities may exchange information over a communications network such as the Internet. For example, one business entity may engage in transactions with a group of trading partners. The business entities may exchange information about transactions in goods, transactions involving a service, financial transactions or other information to enhance business operations. Electronic communications may promote transactional efficiency, such as a reduction of clerical errors from reduced human intervention or an increase in the speed of executing transactions.
In the context of a business-to-business communications environment, each trading partner that is a participant in the transaction or communication may maintain a data processing system (e.g., a server) to support the communication. However, the trading partners may make conflicting technical decisions on the maintenance of hardware and software for various data processing systems involved in the business-to-business communications environment. Trading partners may not share adequate technical information with each other or may simply fail to coordinate the installation of software upgrades, even where adequate technical information about other trading partners is available. For example, different trading partners may decide to upgrade their hardware or software platforms at different times which may result in the incompatibility of one or more software features or the inability to conduct a transaction. To avoid disruption of transactions or problems in the interoperability of technology and software functionality, the trading participants may agree to have upgrades and revisions handled by a single provider. Thus, a need exists for facilitating the single provider's management of the technical parameters of data processing systems of trading participants that may interact. Further, the need exists for efficiently providing software features and software upgrades for the trading participants in a business-to-business environment.
The trading partners of a business-to-business transaction generally desire sufficient technical support to reduce downtime or disruptions in the execution of transactions. Retaining skilled technicians and information technology professionals may be costly to provide reliable operations of the business-to-business environment. Further, such technicians may have inadequate access or capability to monitor and control data processing systems of other trading partners, which may impede the ability to correctly diagnose and address technical problems. Thus, a need exists to enhance the effectiveness of technicians by supporting remote monitoring and control of data processing systems of a trading group via one or more sites.